New Year greetings and recap of 2022

Jan 1, 2023 | News

Happy New Year to all of the friends of the Foundation across the country and around the world! We couldn’t be happier to be kicking off 2023 with you. Our shared passion for bluegrass music and the positive effect it’s had on our lives inspire us to work together to support programs and initiatives to share bluegrass with the next generation. Thanks so much for helping to make that happen in 2022! Here are a few of the things you helped us accomplish:

  • $20,334 in project grants awarded to programs in North Carolina, Washington, West Virginia, New Mexico, Tennessee, Virginia, Iowa, Oregon, and Tennessee
  • Additional funds sent to the California Bluegrass Association to start a bluegrass program for inmates at Avenal State Prison
  • $127,000+ to projects in 27 states and 2 countries outside the U.S. since 2011
  • Bluegrass in the Schools mini-grants sent to California, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, New York, North Carolina and Tennessee
  • $33,600 awarded in BGIS Mini-grants since 2011 (Thanks to our 2022 sponsor, Timothy Connell, who has agreed to sponsor this important effort again in 2023!)
  • Sally Ann Forrester College Scholarships awarded to Bethany Kelley at Berklee College of Music and Gracie Mae Grossman at East Tennessee State University
  • Crandall Creek Scholarship, sponsored by the band of the same name in West Virginia, awarded to Shane Austin at ETSU
  • Rick Lang Music Songwriter Scholarship awarded to Hayley King at Morehead State University. Rick Lang, who founded this scholarship along with his wife, Wendy, has just co-written a song with Ms. King as a part of her scholarship!
  • IBMA Bluegrass College Scholarship awarded to Jaelee Roberts at Middle Tennessee State University. A senior, Jaelee is a member of the band Sister Sadie.
  • First two recipients of the Katy Daley Broadcast Media & Sound Engineering Scholarship: Faith Pierce (Berklee College of Music) and Chun Si Lee (University of North Carolina Asheville). Big thanks to Katy Daley and Bill Brown, veteran broadcasters/podcasters in the D.C. area who founded this scholarship. Katy and Bill plan to donate an additional $10,000 to the endowment fund for this scholarship in January!
  • D. Crowe Banjo Scholarship, created by the Arthur Hancock family in Kentucky, awarded to Max Allard (Oberlin Conservatory of Music)
  • Rosenberg Bluegrass Scholar Award, sponsored in 2022 by Laurie Greenberg, awarded to Gabby Cameron, an ethnomusicologist at the University of Maryland
  • Fletcher Bright Memorial Fund for Young Musicians (established by members of the Bright family, Tom Brown, and Barbara Martin Stephens) awarded to Judah and Bayla Davis of North Carolina and the members of Fair Black Rose in Arizona
  • The Eppes-Jefferson Foundation contributed funds to create a new series of educational videos called “Bluegrass Stagecraft 101.” Videos were posted on the IBMA Foundation YouTube channel in December 2022.
  • The Arnold Shultz Fund awarded $19,170 to programs and individuals in Alaska, Arizona, California, China, Hawaii, Kenya, and North Carolina. An additional $10,000 from the Pisgah Banjo raffle was granted to the Black Banjo Reclamation Project.
  • A raffle hosted by the Pisgah Banjo Company raised $32,720 for the Shultz Fund.
  • Lee Zapis and Deering Banjos collaborated with the Foundation to gift 10 Goodtime Banjos for a Black Banjo Reparations Project banjo building retreat in January 2022. Shultz funds also provided bluegrass lesson scholarships at the Louisville Folk School.
  • A total of $109,217 has been raised for the Arnold Shultz Fund since its inception two years ago.
  • The second annual “Strings for Dreams Bluegrass Raffle” raised $22,325. Kenyon Young of Las Vegas, NV, was the lucky winner of the prize Huber banjo. Big thanks to Rick Spratt for donating the banjo!
  • The prize for the 2023 raffle will be a vintage 1967 Martin D-35 guitar; stay tuned to stringsfordreams.com for more news in the spring!
  • At World of Bluegrass in Raleigh, NC, the Foundation staffed an expo hall booth, hosted the Bluegrass College Band Showcase featuring 12 bands at the IBMA Bluegrass LIVE Festival, presented a Bluegrass College Info Session, funded bluegrass at local elementary schools, hosted a reception for scholarship & grant recipients, and held the annual Bluegrass Educators Luncheon.

We know you love bluegrass. You would like to see a way for it to go on forever. Together, we have a way you can do that. 

–Nancy Cardwell, IBMA Foundation Executive Director
(615) 260-4807, info@bluegrassfoundation.org, https://bluegrassfoundation.org

Return to the January 2023 issue of The Cornerstone.